Editorial Board Guest Author

Ms. Bauer

Carina Bauer

CEO, IMEX Group

Creating value-add exhibitions and winning business, educational and networking opportunities for the worldwide meetings, events and incentive travel industry is Carina Bauer and her team’s mantra.
As CEO of IMEX Group – organizers of the established, award winning IMEX in Frankfurt trade show and new IMEX America show debuting in Las Vegas in October 2011- Ms. Bauer is responsible for operations, strategic partnership management, PR and select marketing initiatives for both shows.
Ms. Bauer has served as CEO of IMEX since the expansion of the brand to the U.S. in 2009, and brings a strategic and hands-on knowledge of the events industry having joined IMEX in 2002 as Marketing and Operations Director. In this role, she was a key part of the original launch team of the first Frankfurt exhibition in 2003 and continued to help vigorously grow the popular show year-to-year by successfully managing promotional campaigns and materials, education programs, strategic partnerships and sponsorships, plus website and online development.
Helping to grow a business was nothing new for Ms. Bauer, having been the Managing Director of GoodBean coffee-- a family owned chain of coffee shops located throughout the South of England -- which she grew to 13 stores in just three years before it was sold to a publicly listed company in December of 2001.
IMEX also appears to be her “cup of tea,” as IMEX in Frankfurt 2011 welcomed 3,500 exhibitors and almost 3,900 hosted buyers and IMEX America promises over 2,000 hosted buyers, up to 100 destinations and around 1,500 exhibitors from the U.S. and around the world in its first year.
A large part of Ms. Bauer and IMEX’s success has been the company’s unique Hosted Buyer Model and Online Appointment System which brings pre-qualified buyers to the show already scheduled and ready to talk business with exhibitors. IMEX also offers free entry to their show floors and into all IMEX and MPI sponsored education sessions (Meeting Professionals International – MPI – being IMEX America’s Strategic Partner and Premier Educational Provider).
In addition to helping spur the industry’s deal pipeline, Ms. Bauer is also deeply committed to bringing other key issues and opportunities for the global meetings and events market to the fore at IMEX shows. These include combining the power of face-to-face meetings with the benefits of technology, driving green meetings initiatives and standards (each show has its own detailed environmental targets, with outcomes or benchmarks for waste, energy and water saving in particular alongside consistent use of recycled or recyclable materials); and giving back to local communities through CSR programs. Many of these initiatives have become hallmark IMEX events under Ms. Bauer’s leadership and are branded as “New Vision” programs designed to encourage grass roots change across the industry. They also encompass politician, executive and Future Leaders Forums as well as cross-industry and multi-partner survey/research data programs. Another hallmark and industry favorite is the IMEX Association Day & Evening which brings association meeting professionals together from around the globe to discuss topics most pressing to association management, their members and directors.
However, Ms. Bauer knows it’s people and one-on-one hospitality that makes the global events, meetings and incentives market tick so she charters herself and her team with personal, responsive and fair relationship management with destinations, hoteliers, associations, events and meetings planning executives & professionals around the globe. She has also, through the timing of two European volcanoes and the SARs outbreak, learned about the importance of planning for the unexpected when you are hosting a major, global event and helping to facilitate the safe travel and peace of mind of your guests. Risk management and crisis communications are now two of her very strong suits.
With the addition of IMEX America to the company’s portfolio and IMEX in Frankfurt celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2012, Ms. Bauer is enthusiastic about the future of the global meetings, events and incentive travel market and thrives on the energy that comes from bringing this dynamic industry together to learn, mingle and – most importantly – to do business.

Human Resources: Value Creation

Businesses must evolve to stay competitive and this is also true of employment positions within those organizations. In the hotel industry, for example, the role that HR professionals perform continues to broaden and expand. Today, they are generally responsible for five key areas - government compliance; payroll and benefits; employee acquisition and retention; training and development; and organizational structure and culture. In this enlarged capacity, HR professionals are no longer seen as part of an administrative cost center, but rather as a member of the leadership team that creates strategic value within their organization. HR professionals help to define company policies and plans; enact and enforce systems of accountability; and utilize definable metrics to measure and justify outcomes. Of course, there are always new issues for HR professionals to address. Though seemingly safe for the moment, will the Affordable Care Act ultimately be repealed and replaced and, if so, what will the ramifications be? There are issues pertaining to Millennials in the workforce and women in leadership roles, as well as determining the appropriate use of social media within the organization. There are new onboarding processes and e-learning training platforms to evaluate, in addition to keeping abreast of political issues like the minimum wage hike movement, or the re-evaluation of overtime rules. Finally, there are genuine immigration and deportation issues that affect HR professionals, especially if they are located in Dreamer Cities, or employ a workforce that could be adversely impacted by federal government policies. The March Hotel Business Review will take a look at some of the issues, strategies and techniques that HR professionals are employing to create and sustain value in their organization.